About Me

Hello and welcome to my website! My name is Eric Shear. I am a Deaf engineer who has done graduate work and internships in the space industry. I have also contributed to increasing accessibility in spaceflight. To that end, I have participated in no less than three weightless parabolic flights, one with NASA's Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program, and two with the AstroAccess nonprofit organization.

I hold degrees in physics (B.Sc Specialized Honours, York University), planetary science (M.Sc, York University), and chemical engineering (M.Eng, University of Florida).

I am currently a PhD student in chemical engineering at University of Florida, researching a way to separate dilute gases from a mixed gas stream without chemicals or phase changes. This is relevant to life support for human spaceflight (especially CO2 removal from a breathing loop) but could have other Earthly applications. This work is being done under the mentorship of Dr. Ranga Narayanan at the Bifurcation and Nonlinear Instabilities Laboratory.

My goal for this website is to chronicle my journey, as well as to show other d/Deaf students the possibilities that can be experienced in any science, engineering, technology or math (STEM) major.